I thought I was a free-thinker – creative and brilliant when working unstructured and without boundaries. Annoyingly though, I soon realised that I come unstuck without guidelines. I thrive within boundaries, when I have clearly defined objectives and most surprisingly, when I have a deadline to work towards. In fact, I do my best work under pressure and therefore tend to leave everything to the very last moment before getting started.
As we approach the end of only the second month of 2017, I’m still well-aware of my hopes and dreams for this year. They’re the same ones I’ve had for a few years now – both personal and professional – but as I read through a recent blog post by Seth Godin, I realised that I’m never going to attain those hopes and dreams if I keep working to meet my deadlines.
My challenge this year then, lies in having some sort of plan of action or structure for the space in-between the deadlines.
“When everything is focused on the deadline, there’s little time to work on the things that are actually important. When we build our lives around ‘what’s due’ we sacrifice our agency to the priorities and urgencies of everyone else. More important is the bigger issue: Time is running out. For all the things you might want to experience, not merely the ones that are about to leave the gate. Time is running out for you to level up or connect or to be generous to someone who really needs you. Time is running out for you to become the person you’ve decided to be, to make the difference you seek to make, to produce the work you know you’re capable of – Seth Godin.
If I continue living from deadline to deadline, I’m never going to fulfil my hopes and dreams and I’m never going to become the person I want to be.
As I write, I find myself right in the middle of a frenzy of deadlines, thus leaving me with very little head space to work on achieving those dreams. I have started making incremental changes that don’t require a huge amount of thinking or effort though – little things I’ve found I can commit to – one day at a time.
As for the in-between deadline days – I plan to get some structure going – even if it’s structured doodling time.